Sorry we’ve been a little quiet this last while, we’ve had a busy time of it this year. Between break-ups and break-downs and a whole lot more besides (not us personally), we haven’t had time to make much music recently.

This will all change in the New Year, we promise!

For now, we would like to give you a Christmas present, a new song we wrote and recorded in the last few days. It’s called “This Christmas Day”:

We hope this song brings a little light and love into your hearts this Christmas time!

Please remember that Christmas really is a time for family. Please spread the love, and remember to have a good time yourself (preferably responsibly!)

Tenonsaw’s new single “The Drowned Forest” will be released on the 30th of June.

The song will be available for free download from www.musicbytenonsaw.com on that date, and will also be available as a strictly limited edition promotional CD for the cost of shipping to your address.

Both the download and the CD feature Tenonsaw’s version of the Felice and Boudleaux Bryant classic “Come Live With Me” as a B-side:

We are currently working on the video for “The Drowned Forest”, and we will upload this as soon as it is done.

For Tenonsaw news as it happens please follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or better yet subscribe to our mailing list by clicking on the [Contact] tab above and sending us a message with the word “subscribe”.

Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy the music!

]]>http://tenonsaw.org/2014/06/09/the-drowned-forest-300614/feed/0tenonsawAs I go deeper….http://tenonsaw.org/2014/06/03/as-i-go-deeper/
http://tenonsaw.org/2014/06/03/as-i-go-deeper/#commentsTue, 03 Jun 2014 16:37:49 +0000http://tenonsaw.org/?p=1383Continue reading →]]>I was just looking over the footage from our recent video shoot today, and beginning to work on editing the video. We have a final mix of the song and we’re just finishing the mastering process, so we hope to be able to confirm a release date for the single in the next few days.

Salt and I had a great time shooting the video in a wonderful location with an old abandoned building, some amazing wilderness and a cool swampy area.

Since the song is a sort of journey into wilderness, with a first person narrative describing a realization of the power and beauty of nature, we wanted to find somewhere where we could shoot a performance video in a place untouched by human hands, and yet be able to contrast this with some shots filmed in a place where nature had reclaimed control. This location gave us all of this, and more.

I was genuinely put in mind of the wild, over-grown Brazilian Rainforest that I was lucky enough to visit, and which inspired the song in the the first place.

We also used a GoPro for the first time, I haven’t got around to this footage yet so I hope it turned out alright! We did have a great time messing around with it though, they are fantastic gadgets!

We’ll have more news on the release date in the (very) near future, and all going well we’ll have the video ready well before the end of the month.

In the meantime at the end of this post there’s a couple of moody shots I took of the raw video footage as my computer was struggling to process the files.

We hope you all enjoy the results once we are finished, and we look forward to hearing what our fans make of this new song, a little bit of a departure for Tenonsaw.

All the best! Tom.

]]>http://tenonsaw.org/2014/06/03/as-i-go-deeper/feed/0tenonsawphotophoto(2)photo(3)photo(1)BpNu3RkIgAA1_pLCome Live With Mehttp://tenonsaw.org/2014/05/08/come-live-with-me/
http://tenonsaw.org/2014/05/08/come-live-with-me/#commentsThu, 08 May 2014 16:32:20 +0000http://tenonsaw.org/?p=1367Continue reading →]]>Sorry we’ve been away for a little while, “real life” got a bit crazy there for a while, but we’re back now! A little news:

We will shortly be releasing our new single “The Drowned Forest”.

Artwork is shown on the left (click for full-size), and we will be confirming a release date as soon as the mixing and mastering is complete.

As usual the single will be available for free download, and there will be a limited number of CDs available for purchase for a reasonable price. On the B-side will be a song called “Come Live With Me”, and you can hear this song RIGHT NOW using the player below.

It’s our cover of an old Roy Clark song, which was a number one hit in the USA in 1973, written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (more famous for “Wake Up, Little Susie” and “Love Hurts”)……..For Camaty!

]]>http://tenonsaw.org/2013/12/02/merry-christmas/feed/0tenonsaw….Sleigh-bells ring….http://tenonsaw.org/2013/11/12/sleigh-bells-ring/
http://tenonsaw.org/2013/11/12/sleigh-bells-ring/#commentsTue, 12 Nov 2013 16:24:16 +0000http://tenonsaw.org/?p=1296Continue reading →]]>….A little early perhaps, but in our studio at least the bells are ringing. After all, you can’t have a Christmas Song without Sleigh-bells! More in a few paragraphs >>>

First of all we’d like to welcome all the new fans who have joined us on Facebook and Twitter. Nice to think so many people are enjoying what we do!

The response we have received to the “Avenging Angels E.P.” has been very gratifying to us. We especially appreciate all the people who made an effort to get in touch with us and tell us what our music means to them, thank you all very much!

We have also been pleased to hear our music getting played regularly on the radio, particularly in the South-East. Thanks to all the D.J.s who played “Avenging Angels” and “Waves” from the E.P.

Downloads and sales of the C.D. have also been going well, if you haven’t yet you can still order the C.D. from our store at www.musicbytenonsaw.com, and the Download is available from there or from iTunes, Amazon or any other good on-line store. Don’t forget you can also stream the E.P. on Spotify and Last.fm.

So what’s next for Tenonsaw?

We will be releasing another free Double A-side single shortly. One of the two songs will be “Try To Sleep” taken from the “Avenging Angels E.P.” and we will be shooting a video for this song in the near future.

The other song will be a Christmas song, and we are working on the recording at present. We’ll tell you more in a little while, but for now here are a couple of hints: It’s actually two songs (both covers) combined into one song. Both songs are quite well known. They have quite similar titles. Only one is a Christmas Song.

Answers on a postcard to the usual address please! (Postcards still exist, right?)

Speaking of Christmas, if you’re looking for a nice Christmas present, you could do worse than visit tenonsaw.dizzyjam.com, where a line of Tenonsaw T-shirts, mugs and other merchandise is now available.

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We’ll be back with more news once we have finished recording our Christmas song, now back to those Sleigh-bells….

“WOW! I love it – am SO impressed. It’s slick, it’s sharp and the clarity of sound is crystal. Well done to you both for the hard work, both creatively and in the hours of practice, recording and production you have put into this. My gut tells me this is getting close to where you both want to go with your music and I’m excited to hear what comes next.

Avenging Angels

I like that there’s a sparsity about the song.There’s a nakedness about it that’s confronting. It’s very unadorned and this will challenge listeners as there’s not a lot of clutter to distort the message.

The Chapel

Love the syncopation, the build of beats and the elements out of sync that all crash together perfectly following the lull into the chorus. The high intensity electro vibe give the EP a whole other dimension, adds diversity and variety, satisfies a different need in me as a listener. The lyrics ‘Stay as the wind blows / Stay as the wine flows’ – I love the paradox of staying still, taking in the moment, while the rest of the world around us change and move on by.

Skin

The transition into ‘Still I’m here…’ lifts like a visible thing. And this precise moment, for me, is THE moment of the EP. This is where I got a glimpse of the amazing directions you can push your sound. Hand in hand musically and lyrically this song goes to another place, all on it’s own on this EP.

Try to Sleep

This is the only song on the EP where another band came to mind. When the song hits the chorus I heard Depeche Mode. The mix of moniro notes and flat notes undermined the positive lyrics singing of ‘better times”. Otherwise I don’t liken you to anyone. Influence don’t leap out and strangle me. They’re subtle and well intergrated. You don’t wear your many influences like badges on a denim jacket.

The Heat Will Fade

I love the use of the words ‘Tonight’ & ‘Given time…’ as repetitive devices to anchor the song and keep it firmly rooted in the sense of calm and ‘at peace with the situation’ the song has at heart. This is a great song to the EP. There’s a sense of resolution here. And the line that goes something like ‘we can’t be together / we can’t be apart’ at that time in the song, WOW. Beautiful.

Waves

The best composition and arrangement on the EP. Delicate and fragile – handle with care. From the opening, the parallel and mirroring of the vocal & lyics (use of the words waves + water) with the underlying sound effect used really sets the scene. It ties the song together so that no part stands on its own. It’s a great signpost for how the rest of the EP with flow in terms of the synergy between the music and vocals/lyrics. I’m a HUGE fan of the distortion note coming out of the chorus. Give the song a hint of menace, a harbinger of imending trouble and darkness. This will sound stupid but the song sounds both simple and complex all the same time.

It features six brand new recordings and is (we feel) a huge leap forward for us.

You can purchase the E.P. on C.D. from www.musicbytenonsaw.com for €10
(including postage within Ireland, small extra
charges apply for delivery outside Ireland).

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It is also available to download from Amazon (.com / .co.uk / .de / .it / .fr / .co.jp and others), iTunes (search for “Tenonsaw” in your own iTunes store for regional variations), and other on-line stores, and all Download versions including the one from our site include our previous single “After Each Dark” as a bonus track. Also streaming on Spotify, Last.FM and others.

The E.P. opens with “Avenging Angels”, a trip-hop groove with a soaring middle 8, a song from the point of view of a character driven to murdering her lover and committing suicide, justifying herself to the Angels she sees coming to take her to judgement. The video was filmed in our home studio (emptied for the day) and can be seen below:

The next song is called “The Chapel”, and is another story song from the point of view of a narrator driven to obsession, stalking the object of their unrequited desire. This song was originally an acoustic folk-style song, and then became an alternative-country-ish track with driving guitars. The version presented on the E.P. was originally prepared by Tom as a remix for a B-side, but we fell in love with the trance-y uptempo vibe and decided to release this as the main version. The other versions are very likely to see the light of day at some point in the future.

“Skin” follows, a more personal song about the need for intimacy and understanding in a relationship, and opening up to your lover. Beat-less and sparse with another glorious middle 8, this is Tenonsaw at our most vulnerable with a beautiful up-close vocal from Salt.

“Try To Sleep” is an up-beat Electro / Hip-Hop song with complex chord changes and Daft Punk influenced Synths, written by Tom late one night while Tenonsaw were apart in seperate countries. The lyrics are direct and simple, and much of the music (especially the improvised coda) was recorded in single live takes to preserve the fresh and ragged feel.

The epic penultimate song “The Heat Will Fade” is next, a two-part song-suite describing an argument between lovers. Musically the whole track is built on a single chord sequence played on guitar, with many layers of variation applied in sequence with different instruments with the song becoming more complex as it progresses.

Finally the E.P. closes with “Waves”, a re-recording of an old favourite. This version is more reflective and at peace than previous versions, and brings the E.P. to a close with a swell of distortion, Salt’s expressive finger-style guitar and voice and orchestrated programming by Tom showing just what Tenonsaw are about in 2013.

Full lyrics, credits and some extra artwork taken from photos by Salt Eriksson are on display [here], the C.D. sleeve also includes a unique set of photographs by Salt, and don’t forget we have also recorded a video for “Waves” which you can view [here].

We hope you enjoy the music as much as we enjoyed making it, and we’d love to hear any comments you may have. Please feel free to use the [Contact] link above, or get in touch on Facebook or Twitter.

It will be available as a C.D. and download, with the C.D. featuring photography by our own Salt Odelund and full lyrics in a sleeve designed by Thomas Luke.

The C.D. will be available only from our own www.musicbytenonsaw.com address where it will cost €10 including postage within Ireland. Shipping outside Ireland is no problem, however there may be an additional (small) charge for this. The download will cost €5 from this website.

The E.P. will also be available from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, CDBaby, Last.fm and other on-line stores, and here our recent single “After Each Dark” will be included as a bonus track.

A double A-side single featuring two songs from the E.P. (The title track “Avenging Angels” and “Waves”) is available as a free download so you can get a small taste of the music in advance, click here to download the single, or listen to the songs using the player below:

Finally, we would just like to add that we are very pleased to be able to finally release some music that gets close to being the sound in our heads, and we hope that it means something to some of you.

We look forward to hearing what you have to say about the E.P. when it comes out on the 25th!